1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shipping apparatus, particularly to an apparatus designed to maintain goods in a predetermined orientation during shipment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A large volume of goods are being shipped throughout the United States and the world. Many of these goods must be maintained in a particular position during shipment, often for long periods of time. It is efficient and cost effective to employ commercial shipping companies to deliver goods from one location to another. However, these companies cannot guarantee that the shipping container will remain in the specified position during shipment. It is therefore necessary to find some means for maintaining the goods themselves in the desired position despite the orientation of the outside shipping container. The desired orientation for the goods will obviously depend upon the type of goods being shipped. It is adequate for many goods to be shipped in orientations that may vary as long as the orientation does not exceed a certain tolerance from the vertical.
Means for retaining containers in the upright position are known in the art. McKinney, U.S. Pat. No. 791,569 discloses a lamp holder designed to prevent spillage of oil wherein a supporting frame has a primary ring and a freely rotating gimbal. The lamp is held in place by two arms and is pivotally suspended at right angles to the gimbal. Schirl, U.S. Pat. No. 1,083,861 discloses an ink well comprising a stationary supporting body with a weighted container suspended therein. The container remains upright no matter what the position of the supporting body.
In the Schirl and McKinney references, rotation of the suspended container is about two orthogonal axes. The suspended container is not freely rotatable about every axis of the supporting body. Neither apparatus would be suitable for holding bottles of liquid in a shipping container.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for the shipment of goods which are required to remain in certain range of positions. It is a further objective of this invention to provide a simple, inexpensive, compact yet durable apparatus for this purpose.